Today (at 3pm Eastern Daylight Time) the finals of Eurovision will begin.
On Monday, when I join the bloggers of #MusicMovesMe, a weekly music meme, our theme for the week is "65th anniversary Eurovision".
When I told my spouse I was blogging today and Monday about Eurovision, he responded "What's Eurovision?"
Basically, Eurovision is an annual contest which originated in the aftermath of World War II, when Europe was struggling to recover from the horrors of World War II. The idea was for various European countries to cooperate with each other "through cross-border TV broadcasts". The contest started in 1956, based on an Italian music festival, with seven countries participating, and has expanded into quite an undertaking.
In fact, it's now the most watched song contest in the world. Sadly, in 2020 it was cancelled due to COVID-19. Apparently, a number of the participants have tested positive during this year's contest, which is being held in Rotterdam.
Last year, Netflex showed a Will Farrell movie called "Eurovision Song Contest - The Story of Fire Saga" about an Icelandic duo who is chosen as Iceland's entry in Eurovision. I don't have Netflix, but I read the reviews on You Tube, many of which pointed out it did not mock the contest, or its participants. But it did introduce a lot of pandemic Netflix listeners to Eurovision.
I've never seen Eurovision. Although I did know it existed, I'm only learning about it now, as I prepare my Monday post ahead of times.
I had no idea that the singers Celene Dion and the group ABBA, among others got their start from Eurovision. I was aware that Riverdance had its start as the "interval" act in 1994. (An interval act performs after the last act in the final during the tallying of the votes, and some of these acts have won their own brand of fame.)
The Forbes article I linked to above mentioned that the United States will be holding its own version of Eurovision next year, called the American Song Contest. That should be interesting.
I'll leave you with this interval act from 2016 called Love, Love, Peace, Peace, which is a gentle satire of what it takes to succeed at Eurovision.
Have any of my readers watched Eurovision? (In the United States the finals will be streamed, starting at 3pm, on Peacock, which I don't have, either.)
...well, what can I say, I've never heard of Eurovision!
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting, I had never heard of it before!
ReplyDeleteI would have asked the same thing as your husband, "What's Eurovision?"
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of Eurovision before - but I will check it out. Thanks for educating me about it!
ReplyDeleteNever heard of Eurovision until today--it was mentioned on TV and now in your blog.
ReplyDeleteI had heard of Eurovision, but never investigated it until we were given tomorrow’s theme. It’s fascinating.
ReplyDeletePeacock is free, so if you have streaming capability, all you have to do is download the app and you can watch. (I got it for my TV, but I haven't watched anything on it yet.)
ReplyDeleteI've heard of Eurovision via bloggers from outside the US, but I have not ever seen it.
Actually, any song from the 65 years of the competition is fair game. Maybe I should have made that clearer...
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